Lost colony in 9th age - 2500 vs. VC

[Thraundil]

@death supreme + warlocks = 2 soulblights. He can dispel one, but not both now add a second unit of warlocks!
However. A lvl 4 beast with a close-to-certain savage beast bubble... ow ow ow! But its a must-stop spell for the opponent. And its even shorter range than death. If you do this, you should probably mount her so she can stick with the fliers.

Yep, ethereals are a valid reason for a magic weapon somewhere in the army. But consider this. If that silver helm unit has world dragon banner, any wound your lord inflicts is saved on 2+. Tut tut! Also, S4 is actually almost as good as S6 vs bret lances. Vs S4 they are 3+ 6++, vs S6 they are 5+ 5++. But the extended grind power is certainly important. I have been puzzling about the same thing myself.

Choices between sick charge punch with the cloak (above suggested build) or, as an alternative: lord on pegasus, ogre blade, talisman of protection and other tricksters shard (it must be in the army, imo). He is slightly more vulnerable to shooting, doesnt pack as much of a punch. But the master next to him with the cloak will pack that punch for him

I have even considered giving one or two of my masters a great weapon over a lance... 2 lance chars, 2 GW chars. Combo of punch and grind power... Choices, choices. I personally think that since the power of the fliers is to pick their own battles, that lances will still come out on top. But you are right, the skullcrusher unit had to be stopped. With great weapons, it could be ground down over two rounds.

[Marchosias]

I think that in the recent US masters the most successful DE lists consisted of several mounted heroes and a beast sorceress with a nice warlock bunker. Or dark rider bunker, it does matter little.

So, I have been musing with the possible builds for my heroes and one possibility would be this:

dreadlord: lance, heavy armour, dawnstone, cloak of twilight
PoS master: warrior bane, potion of strength, dragonbane gem

This way I earned 17 points that could be spent on upgrading the beast sorceress to warlocks and the talisman to ring of hotek, for example. The dreadlord retains his mad charging skills but is no more that dangerous when charged and kills little in subsequent rounds of combat but he should survive for a while. PoS master is one point of strength down and no more really dangerous to the mean and nasty things out there. And if there are no warlocks (it is not sure when the models will be available), a gleaming pennant on warriors is also a nice thing.

So increased survivability for my dreadlord at the cost of some combat punch. He could no more face hexwraiths or K'dai destroyers, too. Do you think such an exchange is acceptable?

[Amboadine]

Survivability is all well and good, but if you hit hard enough and fast enough, the opponent isn't there to hit back

I guess the question is more how many hexwraiths and destroyers are you likely to face and how else can you deal with those threats. Destroyer could be held up with the dragonbane pretty much all game so could definitely face one.

As for awaiting the warlocks, better start being extra nice to Rowena

[Marchosias]

@ Amboadine: Yes, but some insurance for the times the dreadlord fluffs his attacks or I send him to a fight too difficult might be reasonable.

And you are very correct about the warlocks. Now how to arrange it?

@ Rowena: @}-\-- O:-) (why is there no smilie for a flower or an angel on a dark elf forum? )

[Calisson]

I have no flower, but you could try either angel here below.

[Marchosias]

@ Calisson: Thank you very much! *bowing*


@ Rowena:

[Rowena]

@ Calisson: Thank you very much! *bowing*


@ Rowena:

Aw, that flower is lovely! *blushes* The first warlock is assembled on my table, hope you like him. Now to somehow find enough time for painting between all school work...

[Marchosias]

No need to rush and be nervous. At least my opponents cannot complain my lists are overpowered.

OK, I should probably stop derailing my own thread.

[Marchosias]

Lost Colony vs. Tomb Kings (ETC)

This game is ancient, almost two months old. It seems I am not going to find the time to make a full BR with pictures anymore so I am going to provide a short summary at least. This was before the discussion about changes in the list so I was still using the same variant as in the battles posted before.

Lost Colony:

Dreadlord, pegasus, ogre blade, cloak of twilight, dragonhelm: 301
Supreme sorceress, lvl 4 heavens, obsidian lodestone: 265

Master, pegasus, sword of might, dragonbane gem, potion of strength: 177
Master BSB, pegasus, great weapon, 4++ talisman, charmed shield: 211
Sorceress, level 2 beasts, dispel scroll: 140

2x 5 dark riders, shields, crossbows, musician, champion: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, ahw: 90

Tomb Kings:

Liche High Priest: Hierophant, Lvl 4, Nehekhara, Sceptre of Stability
Liche High Priest: General, Lvl 4, Light, Obsidian Lodestone
Liche Priest: Lvl 1, Light, Dispel Scroll
Liche Priest: Lvl 1, Light
30 Skeleton Archers: Musician,
6 Skeleton Chariots: Standard, Musician, Banner of Swiftness
3 Skeleton Chariots
5 Skeleton Horse Archers
6 Necropolis Knights: Standard
Khemrian Warsphinx: Fiery Roar, 230
2x 3 Carrion: 72
Hierotitan: 175
Casket of Souls: 135
2x 1 Screaming Skull Catapult


I was quite worried about the two big units. I knew my heroes could defeat them in a combined charge but I wanted to avoid fighting on my opponent's terms. Therefore, I was probably too cautious.

In deployment, my opponent placed everything important in one corner – both catapults, casket, the hierotitan, archer unit with all mages; and they were guarded by the two big blocks. As I was afraid of those big units, I only placed my dreadlord and PoS master across them, with some harpies and bolt throwers as support, and the rest went to the opposite corner. As a result I was almost unable to cast anything meaningful for the whole game because heavens spells only have a range of 24 inches mostly.
In the end, the big blocks went down very easily:
First turn I moved my heroes up and blocked the big units with harpies. As I made a mistake, the necropolis knights hit them in the flank (instead of in the front as I wanted) and overrun into my dreadlord.
Second turn I sent my PoS master to help my general and together, they crumbled the unit in one go (well, to be honest, I inflicted some wounds prior to combat with my bolt throwers but I think at least four were still there). In this turn I shot at the big chariots and killed some.
Then the big chariots crashed into my dreadlord. I dispelled the attempts to buff them, this way they did not have two full ranks and only inflicted S4 impact hits which did not harm me. Soon, the chariots were destroyed as well.
At the bottom of turn 4, my heroes had an open path to my opponent's backfield. Unfortunately, we had to end there.

On the other hand, the magic (and shooting) was nasty. The light mages were spamming small missiles – d6 S4 is not much but it can hurt small units like shades or dark riders. Besides, the hierotitan adds d3 to each spell and casket d3 dice to power pool. I have lost quite a few points to those small missiles as I was unable to stop them all.
As I deployed far away from his bunker, there was not much shooting coming my way but this could have resulted in some wounds, too. (Though not that many – S3 hitting on 5+ means only 5 dead witches from all the shots his bunker can produce, barring the spell that adds one attack or shot.)

In the meantime, my BSB let his chariots charge her back and then hacked them apart. The warsphinx caused some casualties, though, as my witches left it on one wound when it attacked them and flanking executioners failed to bring it down then.

Evaluation:

No unit of his can fight with my heroes, one only has to be careful about the sphinx. Even regular troops should be able to hack the undead apart. I have just run the numbers and to my surprise spearmen can defeat the chariots if they somehow survive the charge. Sure, all chariots are weak if not charging but for tomb kings it is one of the few reasonable combat units.

On the other hand, catapults, magic and shooting are to be feared; the magic probably most of it. S6 banishment, casket bound spell and a cheap magic missile spam can hurt. It might be advisable to target the hierotitan first with all shooting available. It is certainly a model that makes the TK magic phase much harder to contain.

But if the dark elf strikes quickly and decisively, there should not be enough time for the ranged attacks to do much damage. I would feel confident should I fight this kind of list again.

It should be noted, though, that in a recent team tourney the team with this player and this list won so it is obviously not utter crap.

[Amboadine]

Thanks for the short and concise write up.

[Marchosias]

ETC Team Tourney – Introduction

Last weekend, I attended what is probably the biggest tourney in the Czech Republic – an ETC event for teams consisting of five players. 14 teams signed up which meant that 70 people were battling there – not a bad number I say.

The pairing system was slightly complicated and very similar to the one used in ETC itself so you can look it up. (In short: Both teams nominate simultaneously one of their own players as their opener; then they assign two possible opponents for the opener of the opposing team, simultaneously again; and finally, the opener's team chooses who out of the two candidates is actually going to fight the guy they nominated in the beginning. This way, two pairs emerge (two openers plus their designated opponents), three armies remain in each team. Then, the process is repeated.) The important part is that if an army has two bad matchups in the opposing team it can't be used as the opener as it would then probably have to fight one of them; excluding the cases where this move would have allowed very good matchups for other members of the team. On the other hand, if an army has some bad matchup in the opposing team it can be avoided with good pairing and so on. The possibility of being sacrificed for the greater good is part of the fun – personal experience.

I was attending the tourney as part of a team imaginatively named Warriors. We had three experienced warlords – an orc player with a savage orc horde, several war machines and lots of chaff; an ogre player with an irongut deathstar and a big unit of each maneaters and mournfangs; and the captain himself with lizardmen consisting of lots of skinks, a big temple guard unit and two dinosaurs. They were joined by a WoC novice who started playing in April and was bringing two demon princes, a big unit of trolls and five skullcrushers; and then by me with my absolutely harmless MSU.

The rosters – together with the list of every other attendant – can be found here.

One more important thing to consider is that while from each battle you could bring 0-20 points as usual, the result of the team as a whole could be at worst 35-65; bigger differences got rounded up. True battle points were only used to resolve ties. This allowed us to play heavily risk averse on several occasions.

Going to the tournament we knew we could place well if things went right, maybe even in the third place; but it was hugely dependent on how the wild cards – the inexperienced novices – were to succeed.

[Marchosias]

Team tourney game 1/5: Lost Colony vs. Dwarfs

Lost Colony:

Dreadlord on dark pegasus: general, lance, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, shield, dawnstone, cloak of twilight: 289
Supreme sorceress: lvl 4 heavens, ring of hotek, dispel scroll: 295

Master on dark peagasus: heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, shield, sword of might, potion of strength, dragonbane gem: 177
Master on dark pegasus: BSB, great weapon, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, talisman of preservation, charmed shield: 209

2x 5 dark riders, musician, champion, shields, crossbows: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x reaper bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 har ganeth executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, additional hand weapons: 90
5 doomfire warlocks: 125

Dwarfs:

Tanky lord on shieldbearers
Thane with Rune of Stubborn For All Near Regiments
2x Runesmith, one of them with normal scroll, the other with forget-your-spell-on-4+-scroll
2x 11 Warriors with shields, champ and musician
24 longbeards, GW, FCG
11 hammerers, FCG, banner of +2 to dispel and ending all RIP spells on 2+
10 irondrakes, champ, musician, trollhammer torpedo
3x cannon (one of them flaming)
3x gyrocopter


First game of the day and I already got sacrificed!
OK, it was not that bad – no one wanted to play dwarfs; on the other hand, others thought they had a very good chance at wiping other opponents; and I realized that while I had little chance to win this game I should have not lost either.
Why did I think so? Well, there is almost nothing in the army that could harm me if there is at least one hill between my flyers and his cannons. The gyrocopters can put me under some pressure but as long as the best target for cannons is my cavalry I should be OK. And there is the chance that a lucky comet will allow me to break through – after all, his units all have just a few wounds and so even 2d6+1 S5 can cripple them.
Besides, while irondrakes shoot quite well they only have a range of 18 inches which means that they will be unable to shoot me if I do not allow it. The only exception is the torpedo which has a range of 24 inches, shoots at S8 and causes D3 wounds (I think) but that is just one rider dead each turn.

In magic I managed to roll the comet and I do not remember the rest. I had no other damaging spell.

I was instructed by our captain to avoid unnecessary risks and play for a draw.


Deployment



I deployed cautiously according to the instructions. A big help was that I won the roll to choose sides though I think I would have managed without this, too. Everything valuable hid out of line of sight of the cannons; the flyers intended to advance behind cover and maybe charge something later. I spotted a gap between the longbeards and the eastern cannon (the horde was not at full three rows so leaving a gap was almost inevitable) and therefore placed harpies directly across them to try an assault. The sorceress was alone for two reasons: first, there was no room for the sixth rank of warriors her joining them would have caused and second, she did not need the look out so why make the miscast results worse?
I forgot to include the dwarf heroes in the diagrams. The lord was in the hammerers, others in hammerers or longbeards.
Despite his +1 to start I rolled better and won the first turn.


Lost Colony, Turn 1



Harpies flew as far as possible to threaten the cannons (the longbeards could have charged them with a roll of 10 I think – my reasoning was that if my opponent succeeded in the charge it would have isolated his big block, making it possible to defeat it and to break through to the cannons with other units). Cavalry prepared to shoot and magic some irondrakes. Flyers moved up a bit, hidden behind the hill. The shades were exposed intentionally as a bait for gyrocopters; why did I not make sure to cover landing spots with my flyers, though, that lies beyond my comprehension.
Magic did nothing: comet was destroyed by the dwarf supperscroll and doombolt on irondrakes stopped with dice. I think I cast soulblight on the irondrakes.
Shooting produced no kills as I incorrectly thought the wall was giving hard cover to the irondrakes and apart from dark riders, there were no other shooters in range of anything.


Dwarfs, Turn 1



No movement in the castle. One gyrocopter used its breath weapon on shades but did not score any wounds, the other two shuffled a bit, staying out of charge ranges of my heroes.
There were no good targets for shooting. Three cannons and a trollhammer torpedo were together able to kill two dark riders. Panic passed.


Lost Colony, Turn 2



Harpies charged the eastern cannon and were fast enough to cross the distance. Dark riders encircled the castle and flyers tried to force gyrocopters to retreat. Without much success, I have to say. Shades backed off from the gyrocopter.
Doombolt was dispelled. Shooting did not kill any irondrake. At least a gyrocopter was wounded. The harpies fared well, however, and killed all crew members of the cannon but one who held on stubborn.


Dwarfs, Turn 2



The gyrocopters flew quickly from cover, dropped some bombs and returned to safety; the result was one wound on my BSB. Otherwise, nothing moved (well, at some point the long line of warriors turned to face west – it might have been this turn or the following one). Two dark riders were slain with shooting but the last one dodged the cannonball miraculously.
Harpies destroyed the cannon and reformed facing west.


Lost Colony, Turn 3



Harpies charged the second cannon. Flyers continued their clumsy dance with gyrocopters. Dark riders completed the encirclement. Warlocks seized the wall; I am not exactly sure why I did this but I think I thought that between the protection of the obstacle and their ward they should be safe and able to charge the irondrakes next turn, possibly together with the dark riders.
Doombolt dispelled again, soulblight let through; the lvl4 was out of range of all spells. This time the shooters were able to kill one dwarf. It was a start.
Harpies fared worse this time as one of them fell for no losses at the dwarf side but the combat was tied and continued.


Dwarfs, Turn 3



To my surprise, irondrakes charged my warlocks. I confidently held. One gyrocopter found out to be in range of both the remaining dark rider and shades so it charged and I fled with both. The dark rider could then only rally on double ones which he did not manage. I should have probably held with him. Finally, a gyrocopter killed two dark riders with its breath weapon.
The big longbeards unit turned around to help the artillery next turn.
Only one cannon was able to shoot and it missed the fleeing dark rider.
In combat, the warlocks killed no one but lost two of their own. They broke; the dwarfs pursued but did not catch them at least. Harpies fared better and killed some dwarfs for no losses in return but they were stuck in combat.


Lost Colony, Turn 4



Two of my flyers could have charged gyrocopters and so they attempted it. My BSB did not manage do cross the distance, though. Shades and warlocks rallied, the lone dark rider not.
I thought that with one cannon dead and the other on last wound it was safe to reform into a combat formation. Most of all I wanted to bring my executioners close to the irondrakes in case they would try to attack warlocks again.
Some more shooting and magic was wasted on the irondrakes.
Harpies killed the last cannon crew member and prepared to meet their fate. My PoS master destroyed the gyrocopter and overran in safety.


Dwarfs, Turn 4



Longbeards charged harpies. The gyrocopter that had not been caught by my BSB attacked dark riders.
Irondrakes did not want to overexpose themselves and backed away a bit. The last gyrocopter escaped out of all charge arcs.
This turn or the following one, the remaining cannon tried to shoot my BSB down. The shot fell short, though. I really do not remember if the irondrakes tried to shoot me but they did not inflict any casualties.
The combat between dark riders and gyrocopter did not result in any wounds and my riders stayed in combat. They failed to reform, though. Harpies were unsurprisingly slaughtered after they tore a single longbeard to pieces.


Lost Colony, Turn 5



Infantry moved up in vain hope of catching something. Dreadlord landed right behind the gyrocopter – there was little chance he would get shot due to the interfering close combat. Warlocks moved out of the charge arc of irondrakes; however, the last one could see them still.
I have no clue what I did with my BSB – I can't find her in the photos so she was probably somewhere behind the impassable terrain. Don't ask me why.
With three bolt throwers on the hill, my shooting was considerably better this time and at the end of the round, only four irondrakes were remaining.
The combat resulted in no wounds again and again I failed the reform test.


Dwarfs, Turn 5



Irondrakes backed away again and garrisoned the wall. Gyrocopter escaped out of all charge arcs for the last time.
The last cannon spotted my sorceress in the spearmen bunker and tried to snipe her; it overshot however and only killed two warriors.
Combat tied again but this time I was able to reform.


Lost Colony, Turn 6



Dreadlord charged the gyrocopter. Warlocks charged irondrakes in the flank. Sorceress decided there were no good spells for her anyway and hid behind the hill again (I could have cast a blizzard or something on the irondrakes but I am not sure it was worth the risk).
Shooting was aimed at warriors but had little consequence.
My dreadlord destroyed the gyrocopter easily. One warlock fell; a dwarf might have been slain, too (my photo is blurry). We both reformed to bring more bodies to combat.


Dwarfs, Turn 6

Cannon missed my general, neither warlocks nor irondrakes prevailed gave up any wounds. I wonder if I should have tried to shoot the dwarfs instead? They had hard cover and doombolt would have been stopped again.

In the end, there were almost no losses on both sides but I was able to grab a 11:9 victory.

On other tables, we were doing well. Our ogres wiped out their lizardmen, our lizardmen crushed their high elves, our orcs tied their Empire and our warriors lost to their demons. Summed up we won 64:36 which was the perfect result: one more point and we would have needed to face the best who had wiped out their opponents completely while this way we had a chance for a more manageable opponent.


After battle thoughts

I hate these reports. I thought I had played a solid game but now I see it was not the case. The chasing of gyrocopters was badly executed – with three flyers, I should have been able to cover their landing spots far better. There was probably little reason to flee with the remaining dark rider; or to say it better, it was probably a good idea as a gyrocopter in my backfield could have been devastating but I should have made sure to make fleeing unnecessary.
Furthermore, I should have probably kept my cavalry further away from the enemy and forfeit the attempt at encirclement. I was very lucky my three dark riders survived the gyrocopter charge – and it could have been avoided easily.
The general strategy was good, though. The dwarfs had nothing to do against me – they could have shot with cannons at dark riders and dropped bombs on flyers. No wonder they scored almost no points.
I wonder if I should have left my hiding place sooner – or not at all. I did so in Turn 4 which meant that in theory, the last cannon had enough time to get 210 points worth of bolt throwers. At the same time, it was too late to reach the dwarfs with my infantry and arrange some combats – though the executioners could have probably aided the warlocks with some T6 flank charge if I had really pressed. In a normal game, it would probably have been best to advance with my infantry in long lines and reform them near the enemy and then, jumping out of cover with the bolt throwers would have been acceptable; in this game where my most important goal was not losing, it was most likely an unnecessary risk.

I felt that because of a bad roll for spells, I was unable to cast anything meaningful after the comet had been destroyed. Some occasional blizzard did not seem worth risking a lucky cannonball landing on my sorceress' head. It is true though that I was not throwing maximum dice at doombolts. Maybe I should have.
On the other hand, had the comet not be destroyed (which has a 50% chance) the dwarfs would have been under a considerable magic pressure. Therefore I think this matchup is actually favourable to me, however unlikely it seems: either the comet is destroyed, I hide and get a draw or I land a comet or two, the dwarfs get wrecked and I can win big.

A final note: it was quite sad how ineffective the dwarf artillery was. So many cannonballs falling short, misfiring or rolling a one to wound? I was very lucky in this regard.

[Amboadine]

You may hate the report. I thoroughly enjoy them.
I see you finally got some Warlocks into your list, do we get to see models soon
Lack of experience with them showed a little mid game but hopefully they were of more use in later games. Gyros and other flyers are always an issue. What seems to be a good idea at the time and look foolish or ill advised later.
All in all though you played well, got the win and got very lucky with the Dwarf artillery. Possibly the gunpowder was a little damp.
Looking forward to the next game report.

[Marchosias]

The warlocks were borrowed so no pics for some more time. This is a difficult unit to convert and paint, they have to be extra awesome.
I somehow expect them to win basically any fight so no wonder sometimes they die horribly. I think I interpreted their role in my army incorrectly: they are not fast cavalry that can accidentally cast spells, they are mages who can by the way fight solidly. Generally speaking, sometimes their poison might be more valuable than any amount of doombolts. I expected them to fill both those roles superbly and then was wondering why it was not working.
And do not worry, I like writing those reports, I wouldn't do it otherwise. It is just that the eye-opening they provide is sometimes harsh.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words!

[Cold73]

Well played and well written.
Always when thinking back upon passed battles, especially when using diagrams, you will see things that you could have changed that would have made a huge difference.
As a friend of mine always says...."Hindsight is always 20/20"

The advantage of writing this and seeing this yourself teaches you to be more aware of these things.
I can tell you that reading some of these reports help my own games as well.

[Rowena]

About the warlocks: the first converted model is on my table waiting for me to finally have some time to finish painting him. If we still like him after that (I admit I am a bit unsure at the moment, he could work but doesn't strike me as super awesome, which maybe isn't enough for us), I will show some pics.
And after that... hopefully the unit will be done this year.

(Also, thanks for the report and I look forward to more )

[Marchosias]

Team Tourney Game 2/5: Lost Colony vs. Wood Elves

Lost Colony:

Dreadlord on dark pegasus: general, lance, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, shield, dawnstone, cloak of twilight: 289
Supreme sorceress: lvl 4 heavens, ring of hotek, dispel scroll: 295

Master on dark peagasus: heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, shield, sword of might, potion of strength, dragonbane gem: 177
Master on dark pegasus: BSB, great weapon, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, talisman of preservation, charmed shield: 209

2x 5 dark riders, musician, champion, shields, crossbows: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x reaper bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 har ganeth executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, additional hand weapons: 90
5 doomfire warlocks: 125

Wood Elves:

Spellweaver: General, Lvl 4, Death, Obsidian Amulet, Power Scroll, Elven Steed, 305
Spellsinger: Lvl 2, Shadow, Dispel Scroll, Elven Steed, 150
Glade Captain: BSB, Asrai Spear, Shield, Bow of Loren, Hail of Doom Arrow, Elven Steed, 164
2x 10 Dryads: 110
2x 12 Glade Guard: Musician, Hagbane Tips, 190
6 Deepwood Scouts: Starfire Shafts, 102
7 Sisters of the Thorn: Standard Bearer, Banner of Eternal Flame, 202
3 Warhawk Riders: 135
2x 5 Wild Riders: Shield, 140
2x 1 Great Eagle: 50
2x 9 Waywatcher: 180


At first, I was considering all wood elves a bad matchup for me as too many arrows would tear me apart and I have not that much speed. When I looked at this army closer, though, I noticed there was not that much shooting – 2x9 waywatchers are superb if used right of course and glade guard with poisonous arrows is not to be underestimated either but with four bolt throwers and some crossbows my shooting could have matched the opponent's; besides, I could have harmed him with magic far more than he could have harmed me. This is why I volunteered to take on the woodies; my teammates who would have had trouble chasing the guerrillas were then free to destroy some big blocks.
The basic strategy was simple: kill his waywatchers so that my heroes are free to fly around; kill or lock in combat his glade guard; then kill the rest. Easy, right?

Spells:
Spellweaver: doom and darkness, soulblight, caress of laniph, spirit leech
Spellsinger: miasma, pendulum
Supreme sorceress: blizzard, curse of the midnight wind, thunderbolt, chain lightning


Deployment



I started with fast cavalry, knowing the units could easily redeploy somewhere in cover. I am not sure how I did this but I managed to hide most of my units in soft cover at worst; harpies and western executioners were hidden completely.
An interesting situation emerged with the placement of scouts. I contemplated manning the wall in the middle where his waywatchers then ended but decided not to do it: I was worried a unit of warhawks could kill them for nothing or that they would be exposed to all shooting my opponent could want to throw at them. Therefore, I sent them west to fight the deepwood scouts (out of charge arc of the wild riders, the picture is not perfect). My opponent then put his waywatchers in this exact place.
Because of the waywatchers I stayed put with my warlocks and eastern dark riders.
One thing before I forget it: my dreadlord should have joined witch elves instead of executioners. It is very easy for the witch elves to force some panic checks but the witches have 0% chance of fleeing.

I completed deployment first and seized the initiative.


Lost Colony, Turn 1



First I declared a charge with dark riders against a unit of waywatchers. They stood and shot, killed two and my noble cavalrymen panicked. Luckily, they stopped just at the board edge and did not panic the executioners behind them.
Second I charged warlocks against the same waywatchers who stood. It had to be quite a close charge if I had been able to place my own scouts there – some 14 or 15 inches at most I guess – but they did not make it.
I then shuffled forwards a bit – shades in short range from scouts and out of the charge arc of wild riders (who might have vanguarded a bit), sorceress in range of waywatchers. BSB executioners advanced under the cover of the hill, hoping to get into a fight somewhere; dreadlord execs carried him forwards so that he would be able to charge something next turn. The dark riders that had not charged were able to position so that they were shooting at the waywatchers from the flank (so no hard cover for the wall) and at the same time remaining hidden from the glade guards.
Shooting and magic was enough to kill eight waywatchers from one unit and one from the other (a chain lightning I assume) and panic the eastern warhawks. In addition, three deepwood scouts died.
No close combat despite my two charges.


Wood Elves, Turn 1



Wild riders on the east charged a bolt thrower, destroyed it suffering one return casualty and overran into my PoS master. I really could have placed him to make this impossible.
Warhawk riders rallied. The centre stayed more or less still; the western flank moved to encircle my forces.
As the first spell of the game, the spellweaver cast a spirit leach on my BSB with irresistible force. My hero was unharmed as we both rolled a 1; the miscast result drained two levels off the mage and made him forget both spirit leach and caress of laniph.
A glade guard unit shot at my bolt thrower with their poisonous arrows but killed only one crew member. Shades were turned into pin cushions with the javelins of sisters and arrows of scouts and glade guards.


Lost Colony, Turn 2



One unit of waywatchers was still remaining. My general now personally gave chase to them – and failed again. Fleeing dark riders rallied.
Harpies failed their march block and so they hug the board edge to escape the attention of wild riders. Executioners with tried to hide behind a hill, spearmen and dark riders shuffled in range. The other executioners repositioned a bit (I was obviously unsure what I wanted to do with them), witches were staying in cover, warlocks shielded my bolt thrower against the eagle.
Shooting and magic only achieved a little: a wild rider and two waywatchers from the bigger unit fell. In addition, the lone survivor from the other waywatcher unit was killed by a thunderbolt. There is no kill like overkill.
In combat my peg master fared well: he suffered two wounds but killed three wild riders and the combat continued with only one wood elf remaining.


Wood Elves, Turn 2



Wild riders found out I had not hidden my executioners with BSB well enough and charged them in the back. Ouch.
Fast units raced towards my bolt throwers. Other enemies just shuffled a bit to gain better shooting lines.
Shooting destroyed my dark riders and warlocks. A bolt thrower was poisoned beyond repair, too.
In the big combat, the wild riders showed why one should fear them and killed a ton of executioners. My BSB fought well, though, tanked some attacks and killed a few; then the execs added a wound or two – and suddenly it looked I might actually wipe out the attacking unit. But then the last wild rider remaining passed his 6+ ward save, the attackers survived, I failed a very low break test and was caught. This was a mistake that cost me some 450 points.
My pegasus master killed the remaining wild rider at least.


Lost Colony, Turn 3



My wounded PoS master charged the eagle that was threatening my bolt thrower. The spearmen block charged the last wild rider in the flank. Harpies were sent to fight the remaining deepwood scouts (still not sure if this was such a great idea – I rather think not). Finally, my dreadlord charged the waywatchers again. This time they attempted to flee but were caught. Sadly, the hero failed his free reform test. This turn, all my charges were successful.
The sorceress managed to cast curse of the midnight wind on a glade guard unit and blizzard on the scouts. One bolt thrower singlehandedly killed the nearing eagle; on the other hand, I was unable to harm the warhawks.
Combats went well: the wild rider survived but lost his frenzy (and I was safe from arrows at least), two scouts died for one harpy casualty (they held) and my peg master easily killed the other eagle.


Wood Elves, Turn 3



The warhawks decided not to risk anything, charged my bolt thrower and overran off the board, making all my positioning mistakes irrelevant.
The cursed glade guard unit charged my harpies but they only killed two of them and the girls stuck as they dispatched the last scout. If I count correctly I must have rolled a three. Skillz.
Sisters closed to my bolt thrower. The BSB let his Hail Of Doom Arrow loose but did not kill it.
My remaining dark riders were shot down and the wild rider fighting my spears died. I reformed the unit six wide which allowed them to see the glade guard fighting harpies. If I remained five-wide the unit would have been obscured by the hill.


Lost Colony, Turn 4



My spearmen charged the glade guard in the flank. Witch elves advanced, hoping they could weather one salvo of arrows, and dreadlord closed to the elven firebase as well. PoS master tried to catch the warhawks in a trap and executioners ran to the fighting blocks.
Shooting was insignificant. In combat my harpies were finished off, the glade guard broke but I was unable to catch them.


Wood Elves, Turn 4



Sisters finished my bolt thrower with poisonous javelins, warhawks escaped my PoS master, a few witch elves were killed. The fleeing glade guard rallied; as they were behind the impassable terrain, there was no way I could have finished them.


Lost Colony, Turn 5



From this point on, I have no photos and so I might have forgotten something. Witch elves charged dryads and destroyed them. Dreadlord attacked the glade guard.

I think we played the Wood elf Turn 5 as well but there was nothing to do anyway. The only question at this point was if the glade guard could have survived the dreadlord's fury – and in the end, they were run down.

Added up, we got a 10:10 draw. So much work for a draw! It was a pleasurable game, though, with so many regiments on both sides trying to find openings.


After-battle thoughts:

I think my evaluation of this matchup was correct. The wood elves had many threats but I in turn possessed tools to neutralise them. I might have even been at a slight advantage as apart from the waywatchers there was not that much what could have threatened my heroes. Actually, they should be able to wither one salvo of no armour shots as well though this is of course quite risky.
The biggest mistake was without doubt letting my executioners with BSB to be charged in the rear. I had the movement to prevent that, I just was not careful enough. I am actually not sure though If advancing was such a good idea at all – the unit could have easily defeated one unit of glade guards but a countercharge from dryads could have been nasty. It would have probably worked if the execs were joined by spearmen in the push but there was no cover available for them in turn. So maybe I should have kept my infantry back, protecting the bolt throwers, and only march in the open after the shooters would have been reduced? With waywatchers down my flyers should have been able to roam in the field unopposed and kill the glade guards quickly and then, everything else would have been free to act. In this game I was doing nothing for three turns with the BSB guarding execs, witches, spearmen and partially the other execs, waiting for the opportunity to storm the wood elf firebase. The units could have been useful in bolt thrower guarding duty. And it would have forced my opponent to come closer and potentially allow present an opening.
As a minor note, I am pleased that my spearmen accomplished something meaningful in combat this game. It is sad if they only act as a meat shield.
By the way, the safest spot for my dreadlord when facing so much shooting is actually in the witch elves. As long as one of them is standing there are no panic checks while madness of Khaine has only a minor chance of doing some harm due to dawnstone and T4.
Summed up am relatively pleased with how I took care of the waywatchers (given my awful dice rolls); I am not pleased with my handling of both executioners units (and with my futile attempts to catch the warhawks in general); I am OK with how the witches and spearmen did. The draw is probably an adequate result given my performance.

My team fought with mixed success: our orc drew their dark elf after some bad dice rolls, our WoC was defeated by a high elf, our lizardman drew a vampire count after his Slann blew up with a miscast and our ogre player tried to save it all by defeating a warrior of chaos. In the end, we lost 47:53. Had I not done the stupid mistake with my BSB we could have won. If only by one point.

EDIT: My captain ordered me to specifically mention that he had lost his Slann due to a miscast on the first spell in the game and therefore him achieving the draw was an undisputable testament of his extremely skilful play. What can I do but comply if someone as mighty as him demands?

[Calisson]

Thanks for the report, well written and drawn as usual.
I miss the medusas...

[Amboadine]

Nice report, shame about the positioning mistake, but the rest of the game went well. Nice off him to line up his Waywatchers in the open for you. They are far harder to dislodge in the forest.

[Marchosias]

@ Calisson: I miss them too. But for a highly competitive tournament, and a team tournament at that, the opportunity cost is too high I feel. What could I take out to accomodate them? Core is at minimum; executioners are my only models with high strength attacks (apart from heroes and some spells but this could be too little against silver helm busses and such); shades and harpies offer better mobility if I have one unit of each; and the heroes are the only models actually doing something.
You will see some once the tournament reports are done, though, so bear with me please.

@ Amboadine: Yes, I also think moving them so far forwards was his biggest mistake. They actually did very little. The two units only killed five warlocks. My opponent probably had his share of bad rolls, too, and I was lucky to dispatch so many in my first turn.

[Thraundil]

Nice play! Wood elves are slippery little buggers. Going all out on killing the waywatchers is the right call in that matchup. Once they are dead, your fliers have completely free reign. Take everything but the bus, you wont catch that anyway. I think if you hadnt made the mistake with your BSB and execs, the game would have been a convincing win for you. Woodies are a great matchup for the pegasus builds.

[Rowena]

I think the missing pictures are my fault, this might be the time I turned up at the tourney with blue muffins.

Anyway, thanks for the write-up, I really enjoy reading these.

[Amboadine]

Blue muffins! The perfect mid battle treat

[Marchosias]

Team Tourney Game 3: Lost Colony vs. Lizardmen (ETC)

After a long silence (sorry for that), the third game of our team tourney gets finally documented.

Let me please apologize there will be no diagrams this time. I started but Battle Chronicler was probably displeased with my strategic decisions and protested in such a way that I woud need to start making the pictures all over again. As I have not enough morale to do so, I will only provide a text description with a photo or two. If you say those are sufficient I may stay with them in the future, otherwise I will really try to make the diagrams as usual.

So, this was the third game of the tourney. After one big win and one draw we were on the top tables and therefore, we were drawed against the most feared opponents, many of whom ended in our ETC team this year (I do not say the team was THE strongest - they ended second after all - but they were definitely very good and very experienced). Therefore, our expectations were not high.

I was sent against lizardmen as I thought I should have the tools to defeat or at least draw them. This army has lots and lots of shooting but it is low range mostly and my heroes are fast enough to start cleaning them up early. Not that my opponent would not be unprepared for such an approach: there were three fighty heroes, mighty magic and lots of champions all aboard.

Lost Colony:

Dreadlord on dark pegasus: general, lance, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, shield, dawnstone, cloak of twilight: 289
Supreme sorceress: lvl 4 heavens, ring of hotek, dispel scroll: 295

Master on dark peagasus: heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, shield, sword of might, potion of strength, dragonbane gem: 177
Master on dark pegasus: BSB, great weapon, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, talisman of preservation, charmed shield: 209

2x 5 dark riders, musician, champion, shields, crossbows: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x reaper bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 har ganeth executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, additional hand weapons: 90
5 doomfire warlocks: 125

Lizardmen:

Slann mage-priest: General, BSB, Standart of Discipline, Earthing Rod, Obsidian Amulet, Ruby
Ring of Ruin, Reservor of Eldrich Energy, Soul of Stone, Becalming Cogitation, Focus of Mystery, 525
Scar-veteran on Cold One: Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon, 154
Scar-veteran on Cold One: Charmed Shield, Light Armour, Sword of Might, Dawnstone, 156
Scar-veteran on Cold One: Great Weapon, Light Armour, Dragonhelm, Crown of Comand, Luckstone, 160
Skink priest: Lvl 2, Heavens, Dispell Scroll, 125
4x 10 Skink skirmisher: 70
22 Skink Cohort: Musician, Champion, 130
3x 10 Skink Cohort: Musician, Champion, 70
3x 3 Teradon Rider: Fireleech Bola, 108
3x 5 Chameleon Skink: 65
2x1 Razordon Hunting Pack: Extra Handler, 69

Generally speaking, I had two options. One possibility would have been to stay back and use the fact that I have a longer range that my opponent. His only long range tool is magic, and while potent (soul quench inflicts 4d6 on 16+, meaning you can cast it reasonably on four dice, and the slann has several layers of miscast protection), I should hopefully be able to compete.

Or I could have tried a complete opposite approach, deploy everything forwards and charge head on. Skinks are bad fighters (though high numbers of crap can still hurt of course), and so should I have managed to contain the three fighty heroes somehow, there was a chance for a good win. The scar-vets are very strong, though, with T5 S7 (including great weapon) 1+ armour. I a still not sure what of those approaches is better.

However, I decided to try a third option: to push with flyers and fast cavalry while keeping my infantry in reserve. No, I know no reasons why should this be in any way a good idea. I was unfocused as it was the third game of the day and after the first two turns, it was difficult to remedy for the mistake.

Let us move to the game itself, then.

The lizardmen have no superb leadership and so they try to stay in the bubble around their slann as much as possible (he is both general and BSB). Scar-veterans are all in some skink units to gain protection from bolt throwers.

I tried to prepare my heroes and fast cavalry for a quick asssault, that is why they are all in the centre and on the border of my deployment zone. I made a mistake in letting chameleon skinks too close to my artillery: two units went between the large hill and my board edge, the third in the forest on the west.
Therefore, I vanguarded a unit of dark riders to handle the two units closer to me. It was not enough, however: in my first turn (I begun), I only killed a skink or two; then, the cold blooded shooting unhorsed two riders; then I charged and lost another two to stand and shoot and close combat attacks; and when I broke the unit as planned, they were able to outrun me. The lone champion was then surviving for quite a long time but in the end he died as well.

Deployment photos:





Notice the group of skinks hidden on the far west behind the forest and the two units in left down corner. This mistake was really stupid.
Also notice that the lizardmen deployed centrally in a crowded bubble around the slann. This is typical for them (with this list at least) as it allows the most space for double fleeing which this army does a lot.
As a last remark, if you cannot tell where are the scar-veterans, well, neither am I. This is one of the reasons there are no diagrams.

Me rushing forwards had one more disadvantage: the terradons were all able to drop rocks at some fast cavalry. D3 S4 per model is not bad; I managed to kill one or two before this but still, it cleared my agile troops very effectively.

After this I decided to just rush forwards and hope to overwhelm the lizardmen but it was too late. This is no surprise as I have basically split my army in two halves and sent them piecemal against the whole force of my opponent.

I had little success with magic, too. A comet would have been a an immense help but I only forced it through once and did not kill much. Then I had blizzard, thunderbolt and wind blast. There was much I could have done after my warlocks died.

As said, the infantry did not fare well. Witches killed a razordon for 60 points and then were destroyed by a flank charge. Executioners got panicked in stand and shoot. The other unit tried a flank charge against a 4++ saurus hero with his bodyguards; they all had to attack the scar-veteran, I even scored a killing blow but he warded it. Then the hero killed a few and my unit ran.

And for the inevitable question: what were the heroes doing? Well, as I found out, my opponent was prepared for them even better than I anticipated. The cloak dreadlord was trying to charge something but he could have not gone alone: in the first round he would get challenged by a skink champion and in the subsequent one, without the bonus for lance and CoT, any scar-veteran would chop him down easily. My BSB lost his ward save early in the game to an arcane unforging (bad play on my part, I could have dispelled with more dice) and spent the remainder of the game hiding behind a hill and waving his flag from safety. The PoS master then got killed with one single thunderbolt.

I was of course trying to tag-team them somehow but it did not work. The dreadlord was preparing to charge alongside my dark riders who had a champion but they did not live long enough and the other two heroes were incapacitated too early. Maybe I should have sent all three of them from one direction: one tanks the scar-veterans and the other pile up combat resolution on skinks. The lizardmen heroes would have then been prepared to counter, though, so I am not sure it would have really worked.

And while my offensive was falling apart, the units of chameleon skinks were destroing my artillery. One unit produces on average 12 shots, two poisons, one dead bolt thrower in each salvo.

In the end, I was surprised it only ended with a 3-17 loss.

On other tables we were similarly screwed. Our WoC player was completely desperate from his OnG oppoonent who just seemed to anticipate everything he could think of. Our OnG player lost to a dwarf who was successful enough with shooting; then the orcs tried to go on the offensive but the lord survived on one wound together with one last hammerer.
The other two teammates were faring better, our Ogre ripped 12 points from their Warrior of Chaos and our captain was saving our honour with his lizzies as he defeated the opposing wood elf - S3 shooting does not scare the T5 scar-veterans even if it ignores armour and so the three lizardmen heroes had free reign.
Even this was not sufficient to save us from a 35-65 loss, though. As I said in the beginning, any other result would have been a big surprise.

[Thraundil]

Well. No diagrams really only means the movement intricalities of the game cant be displayed to full effect, so its not such a biggie that you miss them. Rather have a worded battle rep, than no rep at all due to lack of time

With regards to the lizzies, shame about the deployment and first turns. The scar vets are sort of less mobile, more tough versions of our pegasi. The big benefit of going against lizardmen is your potential to keep the fliers very close together. You deploy them sort of 'spread' - consider next time vs a lizardmen opponent: all he has to hurt you is S4 and maybe S5 magic, and S3 shooting. You will have 2+ armor vs most. If you're really concerned, screen the shooting with one dark rider unit, after all thats what they are there for. My point is: deploy all fliers side by side, and move them as if they where a unit of flying skirmishers. Combo them like mad. Scar vets might be hard to kill, but if you ram 3 fliers into a unit of skinks with a scar vet in there, chances are good you will break them via CR and run them down like little bitches. Remember a skink unit with a scar vet on cold one cant elect to flee from a charge. And then like you said - move the infantry forward to force him to focus on all your threats.